Saturday, January 23, 2010

Philip K Dick Festival

Praise be to Lord Running Clam (aka David Hyde) for putting together the first-ever [ooops, first American] Philip K Dick festival later this year in Colorado! I can't count the number of times I've been up past closing time lamenting the fact that nobody can ever get it together to put something like this on, then a little later, I make promises to myself to finally try and put some kind of conference together, this finally descends into a solitary spitball session consisting of overly grandiose speculations... 'what we ought to do is rent the hotel at Disneyland..' But somebody stood up against the forces of entropy and chaos, now it's up to us to make this thing great.

I've asked Patrick Clark, publisher of PKD OTAKU and a friend of many years to be our Festival Fan Guest of Honor and he has graciously accepted! Patrick is a PKD fan of many years standing. He has contributed articles to the Philip K. Dick Society Newsletter, For Dickheads Only, Radio Free PKD and has published his own PKD zine PKD OTAKU since at least 1996. His occasional PKD-related zines (like Simulacrum Meltdown and Interference On The Brain Screen) are a welcome find in one's mailbox. Particularly noteworthy to Philip K. Dick fans is Patrick's discovery of the PKD papers held by the Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Also, his definitive resolution of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN problem (uncertainty once reigned over what, exactly, constituted this novel - until Patrick came along) and his work on DR. FUTURITY are noteworthy. PKD OTAKU can be found online here.

Another likely attendee is Jason Koornick who operates www.philipkdickfans.com. When we needed a PKD website Jason stepped in and delivered. He has been operating PKDfans.com for ten years now and is up on all the Hollywood doings and everything to do with Philip K. Dick in this new millenium. Jason's knowledge will be a great asset for all who attend the Festival and have the opportunity to talk to him.

I'm also very happy to announce the probable presence of PKD expert John Fairchild. John lives in California and has contributed to The Philip K. Dick Society Newsletter, For Dickheads Only, Radio Free PKD and PKD OTAKU. John assisted in the editing of THE SELECTED LETTERS OF PHILIP K. DICK (Underwood-Miller Press) and his knowledge of PKD minutae is second to none! We look forward to seeing you all at the Festival (once we set a final date). I am also contacting PKD fans around the world and inviting them to come to Colorado for this PKD celebration -- and i have a few more experts in mind! I'm excited things are shaping up so well at this early date! Watch this space for more breaking news -- Lord RC

I'm really hoping I can make it. Lord RC has graciously offered me the chance to give a lecture. If it's early in August, I can make it before the Fall semester begins, but we're not exactly swimming in bread over here at TDH, far from it. My options are fairly limited and may involve camping on someone's floor. But, somehow, that feels right. And I have a good feeling about this.

In other news, I've got at least three more posts to write, and am falling behind. And it's likely to get worse, mostly because we had a baby boy Monday night, Thomas Walter, pictured below.

"Congratulations, I hope it's a baby." Couldn't resist writing that because it's the line that stuck with me from the first PKD novel I read. No need to put that bit of warped humor on the net. Seriously...

Congratulations to you and your wife (I'm blanking on her name). I wish Thomas Walter a wonderful life.

Nice to see Dave Hyde has gotten hooked up to the internet again. The Festival sounds ambitious and like something I'm going to be disappointed to not attend since I don't foresee any realistic possibility this year for economic and other reasons. Maybe it will become a recurring or even annual event.

The PKD Festival website is in flux. The current website was built using my sister's website builder (she's the one who recruits nurses!)but there is some strange intermix between the two supposedly distinct websites, hence the 'nurse recruitment' information that pops up randomly. I'm addressing this issue with Purehost but with spotty results. We hope to have this issue solved soon. I apologise for the confusion - Lord RC

The PKD Festival is on schedule! Welcome Address will be Friday August 13th, 2010 at The Last Shot Restaurant & Bar on scenic mountain hiway 119 in Colorado, about 10 miles north of Black Hawk and 10 miles soouth of Nederland. Hope to see you all there! - Lord Running Clam